The Spark of White Hart Lane | Eriksen vs Southampton Analysis

After losing at home last weekend to bitter North London rivals Arsenal, and being dumped out of the Europa League by Portuguese side Benfica midweek, Tim Sherwood and his Tottenham players would have been eager to get back into the swing of things. Hoping for a win against Southampton, that is exactly what Spurs did thanks to an inspirational performance from summer signing Christian Eriksen.

Cementing his place in the starting eleven after signing from Ajax in August, Eriksen made his 16th start of the season. Recently, Spurs have looked to the Danish international to inspire them, either scoring or creating chances. This Sunday wasn’t any different, with Spurs 2-0 down, who popped up? With 2 goals and an assist, Eriksen helped Sherwood’s team to win the game.

Man of the Match Display

Eriksen showed his defensive work and discipline, producing 2 tackles and winning 3 out of 8 (38%) ground duels. Unfortunately, he won neither of the 2 aerial duels he was involved in; however, he did make one clearance.

The attacking midfielder completed 36 out of 43 passes, the most on the team, racking up a pass accuracy of 84%, the third best out of all the players on the pitch. Out of his passes, 7 (19%) went forward, 5 (16%) went back, 12 (33%) to the left and 12 (33%) went right. He passed the ball into the penalty area 6 times, the highest on the pitch.

He made 8 (18%) of his passes in the defensive half and 30 (82%) in the attacking half, the most attacking half passes on the pitch. Out of his attacking half passes, 13 of them were made inside the final third, and 9 of them were played into the final third. He also completed all four of his attempted long balls.

No player attempted more crosses than Eriksen, with a massive 14 crosses, although only 2 of them found a teammate, giving him a crossing accuracy of 14%. Half of his crosses were from open play, and the other half from set pieces. Tottenham’s number 23 created 6 chances, 4 from open play, one of which was an assist, and 2 chances from set pieces. He completed 1 out of 3 dribbles (33%).

Eriksen had the most touches of the ball on the pitch, touching the ball 82 times. He was dispossessed 3 times and lost the ball 29 times, higher than any other player. He did manage to make 2 ball recoveries, both in the midfield third and also made one interception.

As mentioned earlier, Eriksen sparked Tottenham’s comeback, scoring twice to level the scores. He produced a total of 6 shots, 3 with his right foot and 3 with his left. Out of his 6 shots, 4 were on target, 1 was off target and the other blocked. This gave him a shot accuracy of 80% and a conversion rate of 40%. On average, he produced a shot every 18 minutes, being on target every 22.5.

The Spark of White Hart Lane

After the loss of Bale in the summer, Tottenham have found it hard to find a player who can offer inspiration and can flip a game all on their own. But it seems they have finally found what they’ve been looking for, in Christian Eriksen. The playmaker was easily the man of the match, and Spurs’ fans will be hoping he can keep it up.

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